Animal Caretaker Job Description

What Does an Animal Caretaker Do?

Caring for animals is more physical than most people expect and covers more than just feeding and cleaning. The daily checks an animal caretaker makes may keep cages and kennels clean, but more importantly they catch a sick animal early, whether it lives in a research facility, a veterinary hospital, a shelter or a boarding kennel.

Also known as: Veterinary Animal Caretaker

Animal Caretaker Duties and Responsibilities

The primary responsibilities of an animal caretaker include:

• Feed and water animals on schedule, following each species' diet and any special orders.
• Clean and disinfect cages, pens and kennels, and change bedding.
• Check every animal daily for signs of illness, injury or distress and report them.
• Restrain animals safely for exams, treatments or procedures by veterinary or research staff.
• Run cage-washing machines and autoclaves, and restock clean equipment in animal rooms.
• Record feeding, weights, census and room conditions on daily logs or tablets.
• Exercise, walk or socialize animals as their care plans direct.
• Follow gowning, glove and biosecurity rules when moving between animal rooms.
• Give medications and basic treatments under the direction of a veterinarian or technician.
• Unload deliveries of feed and bedding and keep storage areas clean and pest-free.

Required Skills and Qualifications

To succeed as an animal caretaker, you will need the following skills and qualifications:

• Safe, humane animal handling
• Recognizing early signs of illness
• AALAS ALAT certification for research facilities
• Cleaning and disinfection routines
• Physical stamina for lifting, bending and standing
• Accurate daily logs
• Comfort with odors, noise and animal allergens
• Reliability on early, weekend and holiday shifts

Education and Training

Supervised training on the job, often just a few weeks long, teaches new caretakers the feeding, cleaning and handling routines of their facility. Employers usually ask for a high school diploma, and volunteering at a shelter or working in a vet clinic gives applicants a leg up. Research facilities value certification from AALAS (the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science), which many caretakers earn while working.

Salary and Job Outlook

BLS projects employment of animal caretakers to grow about 12 percent from 2025 to 2035, with roughly 62,800 openings a year. In fact, the openings far outnumber the new jobs, since many caretakers move on to other work. That turnover keeps entry-level hiring steady. Pay is modest, with a median of about $35,000 for the group in May 2025, according to BLS.

Outlook source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, 2025 to 2035, Animal caretakers.